Commentary: The dumbing down of America

[babsbunny]

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/09/02/99862/commentary-the-dumbing-down-of.html?storylink=MI_emailed

By James Werrell | The Rock Hill Herald


Maybe we, the people, have lost the intellectual capacity to manage a workable democracy. How else do you explain why nearly one in five Americans believes that President Barack Obama is a Muslim?

A recent poll by the nonpartisan Pew Forum found that 18 percent of all those polled -- and 31 percent of Republicans -- believe the president is a Muslim. That is up from 11 percent of all Americans last year.

Obama's faith is not a matter of public opinion. He's a baptized Christian who routinely prays with fellow Christians and invokes his "risen savior" when speaking of his faith.

[Davis_X_Machina]

1. You can't refute a theology with facts...

...and the grosser manifestations of movement conservatism resemble a revealed religion.

The greater the faith, the greater the merit. Little merit comes from believing in what is amenable to reason. As a consequence the greatest merit comes from believing the irrational, the unbelievable, the impossible, because that takes the greatest faith.

This is why you can't win debates against them -- they don't have the same fundamental assumptions about what comprises 'truth' and 'proof' that you do.

[azureblue]

5. and faith is where you go with them

more to the point, the way they claim to be Christians and deny the teachings of Jesus. If you study a bit, like Google "Matthew 7" (1-5), you can drive them nuts. All you have to do is to say "I am quoting to you the words and teachings of your Savior Jesus Christ, as written in the Bible, and you still refuse him. Deny what Jesus told you to do and you deny Jesus."

Call them on their hypocrisy, and do it without mercy. Ignore their talking points - do not try to reason with them at all. They'll get mad and attack you. Ignore it. Just go back to the top, ""all I am doing is showing you the words and teachings of Christ, and you get mad at them?"

You have two openers to start them down the path - 1- "What is the ninth commandment?" and 2 - What did Jesus say about that?" The point is to make them refuse or admit what Jesus is quoted to have said in the Bible. Then they are stuck in a crisis of faith, and that's what you want. Can't be a Christian and deny Christ. Oh yes, I forgot the other dodge the wingnuts use, "well, We'll just have to agree to disagree." To which you respond, "that's fine with me if you disagree with Jesus."


I grew up listening to sermons. So did they, so if you frame your responses in the words of a sermon, they have a fit. You don't have to be a Christian, just a little study and you are ready. "God says" is always their bottom line. Make them use it.

[Curmudgeoness]

2. Since I have never been polled, and no one I know has ever

been polled, I have come to the conclusion that they ask the same people over and over--and many of those people are idiots.

[Davis_X_Machina]

3. I've never been hit by lighting...

...and no one I know has ever been hit by lightning, but I do know that there's no wait for tee times when there's a front moving through.

What could go wrong? Watch my drive....

[Curmudgeoness]

4. LOL. Good point.

:rofl:

[david13]

6. Whoa. What makes you think it has to come 'down' to where it is.

What you see, is actually the most up moment it has had.
Unfortunate, but it was much worse in previous years. So what you see is not down, but merely the up that it has reached.
dc